Matthew 17:20. He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Parting is such sweet sorrow

23:45:00
Karen Li
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Left behind by another friend. Living on the GC is hard, it feels like I'm constantly saying goodbye to friends. Students come to study, the build a place in my heart then, they graduate, pack their bags and go to pursue job opportunities. Workers come for time-limited job opportunities. Even whole families move.

I am always there waving goodbye. I am always there silently shedding tears. Every time someone leaves, they take some of you with them; if you have influenced their life. But they too have given you something. They too have changed the way you live, they have changed the way you feel, they have changed the you that is you.

After many years of parting with friends... it has made my view of friendships weird. I make the best out of every opportunity to be quick to warm up to people, to support them and to build them up spiritually during their short stays. Then, as if nurturing a fallen bird, I watch as they gain their strength and send them on the merry way. I know though, God will send someone else in their place, someone else that I can love, care for and nurture.

When you have faith and are hospitable to visitors, God's grace is sufficient and will provide with you your basic needs. So don't be afraid to give without hesitation, love deeply and care deeply.

1 Kings 17:10-24

New International Version (NIV)

10 So he went to Zarephath. When he came to the town gate, a widow was there gathering sticks. He called to her and asked, “Would you bring me a little water in a jar so I may have a drink?” 11 As she was going to get it, he called, “And bring me, please, a piece of bread.”12 “As surely as the LORD your God lives,” she replied, “I don’t have any bread—only a handful of flour in a jar and a little olive oil in a jug. I am gathering a few sticks to take home and make a meal for myself and my son, that we may eat it—and die.”13 Elijah said to her, “Don’t be afraid. Go home and do as you have said. But first make a small loaf of bread for me from what you have and bring it to me, and then make something for yourself and your son. 14 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘The jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the day the LORD sends rain on the land.’”15 She went away and did as Elijah had told her. So there was food every day for Elijah and for the woman and her family. 16 For the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the LORD spoken by Elijah.17 Some time later the son of the woman who owned the house became ill. He grew worse and worse, and finally stopped breathing. 18 She said to Elijah, “What do you have against me, man of God? Did you come to remind me of my sin and kill my son?”19 “Give me your son,” Elijah replied. He took him from her arms, carried him to the upper room where he was staying, and laid him on his bed. 20 Then he cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, have you brought tragedy even on this widow I am staying with, by causing her son to die?” 21 Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried out to the LORD, “LORD my God, let this boy’s life return to him!”22 The LORD heard Elijah’s cry, and the boy’s life returned to him, and he lived. 23 Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, “Look, your son is alive!”24 Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth.”